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Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) waves as he arrives on Capitol Hill to vote on Sonia Sotomayor's nomination.
AP Photo

He became a vocal and virulent segregationist in the Senate, playing to the conservative constituents in the Southern part of his state and his institutional constituents who hailed from the Deep South. He launched a 14-hour, 13-minute filibuster on June 9, 1964, that did not end until the next morning. At one point during the night, he engaged in a colloquy with Sen. Strom Thurmond (D-S.C.), whose Senate service record Byrd would break 40 years later, about whether the new civil rights law would violate a white woman’s 13th Amendment right not to be enslaved.

“Does the senator from West Virginia feel that when a woman of one race is required to give a massage to a woman of another race against her wishes, it is involuntary servitude?” Thurmond asked.

“The senator from West Virginia feels that unless the action is entered into voluntarily, even though the individual is being compensated for the personal services in the form of labor, it still constitutes involuntary servitude,” Byrd replied.

A former Ku Klux Klan organizer, Byrd once called Martin Luther King Jr. a “self-seeking rabble-rouser,” and he used his gavel as chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on the District of Columbia to press for welfare investigation in the majority-black city.

Over the years — and as he rose in the Democratic leadership — Byrd would moderate his public stance on racial issues, casting votes in favor of extending civil- and voting-rights protections. In 2008, he endorsed Obama over primary rival Hillary Clinton, saying, “Barack Obama is a noble-hearted patriot and humble Christian, and he has my full faith and support.”

“Sen. Byrd’s life — like most of ours — has been the struggle of warring impulses, a twining of darkness and light,” Obama wrote in “The Audacity of Hope.” “And in that sense, I realized that he really was a proper emblem for the Senate, whose rules and design reflect the grand compromise of America’s founding: the bargain between Northern states and Southern states, the Senate’s role as a guardian against the passions of the moment, a defender of minority rights and state sovereignty but also a tool to protect the wealthy from the rabble and assure slaveholders of noninterference with their peculiar institution.”

Byrd’s colleagues noticed his work ethic long before he became the congressional ironman. He grew up watching laborers clash with coal companies’ hired strikebreakers, worked as a butcher and earned a law degree — over a 10-year period — while serving in Congress.

“I liked Bob Byrd because he was a fellow whose career was about as admirable as anyone I ever knew. He was an adopted child, adopted by a coal miner family, never had anything given to him in his life that was worth very much,” former Sen. George Mathers told the Senate Historical Office in explaining why he helped Byrd round up the votes for his first leadership job — conference secretary — in 1966. “If ever there was a fellow who had pulled himself up by his own bootstraps, by just hard work and personal sacrifice, it was Bob Byrd.”

His attention to his colleagues’ every need included sending birthday cards, and his colleagues rewarded his industriousness by promoting him through the ranks.

In that way, he earned every job he ever held — including the Democratic whip post he wrested from Kennedy in a stealth 1971 campaign that pitted Kennedy’s celebrity and liberal credentials against Byrd’s careful cultivation of his colleagues and superior vote-counting skills.

The victory positioned Byrd to become majority leader in 1977. The West Virginian — like most Democratic members of Congress — had an uneasy relationship with President Jimmy Carter, who had little use for, or ability to use, lawmakers. He would spend a dozen years as his party’s floor leader — split evenly between the majority and the minority — before moving aside to become Appropriations chairman and president pro tempore in 1989.

Byrd, who once told a local reporter that his greatest ambition was to chair the spending panel, had been assigned to the committee by Johnson 30 years earlier, when its chairman was Sen. Carl Hayden (D-Ariz.), whose longevity record Byrd ties Tuesday.

Readers' Comments (50)

Senator Byrd spoke out continuously and eloquently in October 2002 against giving Bush the blank check to go to war with Iraq, and Byrd was right. He quoted someone from ancient times (wish I could remember the name) who when asked who deceives the state replied that he deceives the state who does not speak what he thinks (or words to that effect). Byrd along with his friend Ted had been accused of being anti-American because they did not support the Iraq War but both had the courage and patriotism to speak out anyway. Would that the rest of Congress had listened.

Senator Byrd spoke out continuously and eloquently in October 2002 against giving Bush the blank check to go to war with Iraq, and Byrd was right. He quoted someone from ancient times (wish I could remember the name) who when asked who deceives the state replied that he deceives the state who does not speak what he thinks (or words to that effect). Byrd along with his friend Ted had been accused of being anti-American because they did not support the Iraq War but both had the courage and patriotism to speak out anyway. Would that the rest of Congress had listened.

Ever since I was a child, I was told since my family are Republican we are inherently racist. (Even though my entire family comes from Catholic parts of Pennsylvania). I always felt alienated and wierd for protecting conservative values and traditions. Racism never was an issue for anyone in my family and these accusations had no merit, as most accusations of racism from the left do today. I have come to realize at my young age that this is the age-old strategy of the democrat left Saul Alinsky to the core. They seem to conveniently forget that the majority leader in the senate was a high ranking member of the KKK for more than a decade.

This man is living proof that when a politician claims they are "progressive" what they really mean is "I am politically expedient and will throw you under the bus when the political winds change."

If this had been anyone other than a Democrat, the story would have led with the history of being a Klansman. Instead they bury it towards then end and give it barely a few sentences.

Senator Byrd is the poster child for term limits. The fact that he has clung to power (as opposed to guns and religion) when he has been unable to properly represent his constituents over the last several years is utterly disgraceful. Of course, since he's a U.S. Senator, it doesn't matter if he's actually there or not. He still gets his paycheck.

dundee- you forget that ed kennedy, hilary and all the power pig dems' favorite book is 1984, with the doublespeak- saying the opposite of what you mean- being their most polished tactic. If you remember that- your entire post becomes totally meaningless waste of time and space, like all democrats. The evil scum KKK byrd should go die, the sooner the better, for the USA.

Over the years — and as he rose in the Democratic leadership — Byrd would moderate his public stance on racial issues, casting votes in favor of extending civil- and voting-rights protections. In 2008, he endorsed Obama over primary rival Hillary Clinton, saying, “Barack Obama is a noble-hearted patriot and humble Christian, and he has my full faith and support.”

Well he sure missed this one coming! "Noble-hearted PATRIOT" WRONG!. Obama is a disaster for America. I hope Byrd is unable to vote going forward. ANYTHING to stop the parade of bad legislation these idiots would TRY to ram down our throat until the calvary comes riding in next November 2010.

dundee- you forget that ed kennedy, hilary and all the power pig dems' favorite book is 1984, with the doublespeak- saying the opposite of what you mean- being their most polished tactic.

Well, that may apply to Hillary but both Robert Byrd and Ted Kennedy stood up against the Israel Lobby neocons which lied us into unnecessary war with Iraq to the tune of $3 trillion. Now the Lobby is lying us into war with Iran. Obviously, we haven't yet had enough bloodshed or enough Muslim countries trashed for the purpose of facilitating Israel's continued settlement expansion on Palestinian land. (And of course we get the backlash like Fort Hood and 9/11.)

I can't believe this guuy is third in line to the presidency, yet he is. Let's see, Biden Obama and Pelosi are having lunch at the 4 seasons and somebody blows the place up. We get Byrd? Very scary. Hillary is next, lol